We fired our Journeyman!

Unfortunately, we had to fire our main carpenter. Now, I am not going to call him our General, our GC or even our contractor because he was never The Lead however much he thought he was. And there-in lays the problem. He was planning on charging us, not only for his hourly rate but also an 8% oversight rate on his own work. And not only his but that of all other contractors including the ones we brought in.

Now, we get that most home construction projects need a head honcho and we even agree that some of the subs need organization and timing. We even agreed to his 8% on the subs he contracted in; however, he wanted to see our budget from the loan and he was working so slow that he was taking twice as long as many repairs should have taken. Bummer for him, we have over 30 years combined experience in apartment management and sub-contractor maintenance, and we have a pretty good idea of how long things should take. We gave him the heave-ho.

So where does that leave us? Scrambling a little but we have connections and already have two other subs adequately prepared to cover if our man Dave can't help us out. Dave is a retired Vietnam Vet that was doing most our apartment maintenance until he decided to live in warmer climes: Arizona. But, he's a little bored with Scrabble and Wheel Of Fortune, so he thought a 2 month project and the Hot Springs sounds like a fun distraction. He's checking it out next week to assess the project and the altitude. (No snow, please, no snow!)

Wrong work by Carpenter, this will be a curved bar,
carpenter built it squared despite being told several times to curve it,
then he built a new one before the flooring is installed. #Fail

New, operable skylights and roof flashing! 

Flashing In Copper! 

A quick visit to the Telluride Fire Festival!
This was a Steampunk Octopus that fired to music. 

Workers from AlpenGlow,
removing Big Bertha,
the coal burning behemoth boiler.
They were literally covered from
head to toe in coal-soot.

Big Bertha Drum, the New and Improved Oversight Crew
and one hot Mama! 

Future wall to our shower, framed out for our stained glass and the plastic covered window to the Amphitheater. Picture-framed glass and curtains on there way. 

Private Master Pot wall and back side of Master Bedroom
Fireplace.This will be drywalled to cover the venting. 

View from hallway, new expanded kids bath!
Will have private pot, private shower and 3 sinks! 

Saving the tub because it was extra deep
and extra wide cast iron,
just needs some refinish love. 

Pressure-tested, cast-iron radiator,
the kids bedrooms will have
the old-fashion heaters. 

Let there be LIGHT! From living room, into the kitchen,
through to the sunroom. Capitalizing on as much
sunlight as possible throughout the day!
The Sub-Sero is going to the Ridgway Firefighters,
not sure what they are planning for it. Deer + Bear = ?  

Expanded kitchen, we're adding an eat-at peninsula
with a bar-height counter for entertaining! 

New wall to a guest bath, we've gain 7 ft of space in sunroom by
moving the wall 18" towards the stained glass window.
Creating space for stackable Washer Dryer and Combo W/D Unit.